Peter Debauer spent his childhood in the shadow of war, raised by his mother with only fragmented recollections of a father lost to conflict. Years later, he sets out to uncover the truth behind his mother's guarded version of the past and the slim chance of locating his father. Bernhard Schlink weaves a poignant story of one man's quest to reconcile the gaps between memory, family secrets, and reality in post-war Europe.
